Sunday, January 24, 2010

Why wait for a tablet, publish now to iPhone?

Andrew Savikas, blogging for O'Reilly really misses it, in my opinion. He's talking about Amazon's dominance of eBook sales and suggests that the iPhone and iPod Touch are the answer, and no need to wait for a tablet (mind you, it's probably a fairly short wait anyway).

I hate to sum up a lengthy article with a small rebuttal, but:

  • 3.5 inch LCD screen
There, I'm done. Sorry, but that's not optimal for reading. Forget ePaper versus LCD, backlighting versus booklights required. Forget dedicated device versus phone you might already have. 3.5" is not the right form factor for reading. It's smaller than a paperback, smaller than a hardcover and smaller than any dedicated eReader (or any desktop, notebook, tablet or netbook that can be used for reading).
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2 comments:

  1. Jared SteinFebruary 5, 2010 at 2:36 PM

    Ever hear of RSVP? It's not mainstream, I know, but research shows it's just as effective--and faster--for displaying readable content temporally.

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  2. Scott G. LewisFebruary 5, 2010 at 2:54 PM

    For those who are interested, there's an excellent link at:
    http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0000680

    Jared is correct in that it's both fascinating and not mainstream. The beauty of an iPad or iPhone is that it could be offered via application as an alternative way to read - it's use would be somewhat limited on an e-Ink display due to the slow refresh rate.

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